This is a stop in Irene Latham's 2013 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. Each day, someone new adds a line. Our narrator has gotten into trouble! We were flying high with perfect precision -- but then we flopped. It happens.
At first I had the urge to add an unusual rhyme ("and you find yourself collapsing, your brain stops synapsing"), but then I went with something a little less "What??"
*********
When you listen to your footsteps
the words become music and
the rhythm that you’re rapping gets your fingers tapping, too.
Your pen starts dancing across the page
a private pirouette, a solitary samba until
smiling, you’re beguiling as your love comes shining through.
Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers
of the words, one dancer to another, saying
Listen, that’s our cue! Mind your meter. Find your rhyme.
Ignore the trepidation while you jitterbug and jive.
Arm in arm, toe to toe, words begin to wiggle and flow
as your heart starts singing let your mind keep swinging
from life’s trapeze, like a clown on the breeze.
Swinging upside down, throw and catch new sounds–
Take a risk, try a trick; break a sweat: safety net?
Don’t check! You’re soaring and exploring,
dangle high, blood rush; spiral down, crowd hush–
limb-by-line-by-limb envision, pyramidic penned precision.
And if you should topple, if you should flop
if your meter takes a beating; your rhyme runs out of steam—
know this tumbling and fumbling is all part of the act,
*********
My buddy Laura Shovan has the next line for us tomorrow. Take it away, Laura!
Here's the full calendar of where this poem has been and where it's going:
April
1 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
2 Joy Acey
3 Matt Forrest Esenwine
4 Jone MacCulloch
5 Doraine Bennett
6 Gayle Krause
7 Janet Fagal
8 Julie Larios
9 Carrie Finison
10 Linda Baie
11 Margaret Simon
12 Linda Kulp
13 Catherine Johnson
14 Heidi Mordhorst
15 Mary Lee Hahn
16 Liz Steinglass
17 Renee LaTulippe
18 Penny Klostermann
19 Irene Latham
20 Buffy Silverman
21 Tabatha Yeatts
22 Laura Shovan
23 Joanna Marple
24 Katya Czaja
25 Diane Mayr
26 Robyn Hood Black
27 Ruth Hersey
28 Laura Purdie Salas
29 Denise Mortensen
30 April Halprin Wayland
11 comments:
Perfect line!
Ah-that 'tumbling and fumbling' is just right, Tabatha. It's what gets in my head sometimes.
Perfect perfect perfect! Thank you, Tabatha. xo
Great! Love the tumbling and fumbling!
Glad that you've added some reassurance about the tumbling and fumbling--terrific line. (And someday you must write a poem with collapsing/synapsing!)
I also love how the poem has naturally organized itself into six-line stanzas, and a fairly standard line-length. Great cooperation by all of the poets. Now I'm biting my nails!
I am enjoying where the poem has tumbled its way to!
Yes. The sound and the truth in this line are right perfect. And so true: we must believe that even in the face of the tumbles and fumbles, we learn and grow stronger. Thank you for this, Tabatha.
This is a great line, Tabatha, and so true. I really love that you kept up with all the internal rhyming this poem is doing, too.
I think it's interesting to consider whether the "act" is the performance, the final product, as it were, or the active act of writing. Or is it both? The very best follow-up to Buffy's line!
I'm just catching up on the poem today, Tabatha, and had to backtrack to say HOORAY for your line. :) The tumbling and fumbling hits home, eh? :)
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